Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent
By: Chibi-chan
Part 21: “Never Say Never Again”
*
Where am
I? Where is this place? It looks like a human settlement, but all
that seems to be here are monsters…
“Zeik?! Zeik!”
Hanpan? Why…
why is he coming back to me?
Why?!
*
James Maxwell awoke and found himself in his own bed in his own room. “Wha…? How’d I get home? What happened anyway? The last I remember, Laine… Guardians above, LAINE!” He tried to quickly get out of bed and ask his father just what the hell was going on, but he found that he was not going to be able to do anything quickly for a while. He was aching all over. He was aching in places he didn’t even know he had, even. “I hope someone got the name of the driver of the cart that hit me…” he mumbled to himself.
*
When James finally made it out of his room, he saw his father, who had just finished getting up the stairs. “Son! It’s good to see you’re awake again, but you really shouldn’t be out of bed so soon after what happened!” Nicholi said.
“Why? What did happen?! Where’s Laine?! Where’s Cecil and Elmina?!” James asked, an overwhelming sense that something catastrophically bad happened beginning to creep into his mind.
His father was evasive, to say the least. “I’m not sure you want to know the answers, son. Now please, go back to bed…”
“Tell me!” the boy cried, suddenly taking a big step forward. “Please, dad, tell me what happened. Everyone’s not all right; is that why you’re reluctant to answer? If that’s it, I’d like to think I can handle the truth, so please…” he continued in a softer but still very insistent tone.
“If I tell you, then will you go back to bed?” Nicholi asked.
“Sure. Just tell me…” James replied.
Nicholi sighed. “First, we were hoping you knew what happened to Laine. We can only assume she was captured…” he said, pausing when he saw a look of failure on his son’s face. “Don’t blame yourself, James, you tried to help… Anyway, someone who wishes to remain nameless brought you back here.”
“… was it…?” the boy asked almost hopefully.
“… yes, it was. She left earlier, saying something about not being worthy to be called your mother any more,” Nicholi confirmed. “Now, about your other friends… Well, I think Elmina should tell you this… It’s about that blond boy…”
“Cecil?! What happened to Cecil?!” James asked, a sudden panic hitting him.
“Well, he’s downstairs-“ Nicholi started. That was all James needed to know. The boy was headed towards the stairwell before his father even finished the word “stairs”. “So much for going back to bed…” the man muttered. “Hey now, son, go slowly; you’re still hurt…!”
*
“He looks like he’s been through three types of hell,” Lina commented on the boy lying on the bed in front of her. With was also Elmina. She turned her head and looked up at the taller woman and asked, “What’d he do, Giga Slave the Metal Demons?!”
“’Giga’ wha…?” Elmina asked in response.
“Never mind, it’s not important,” Lina said flatly. “What’s important is that he’s really zonked himself out. Didn’t you let the boy rest for ten seconds?”
“It was more like he didn’t let himself rest for ten seconds. I told him he could just stay behind this time, but he wouldn’t have it,” Elmina told the sorceress. “He told me just before we got taken into the Gate Generator that he couldn’t stay behind because he didn’t want to be lonely any more…”
Lina let out a dry little laugh. “Heh, and Laine said he didn’t know where his heart was…”
“Is there anything we can do to help him? It’s hell to see him like this…” Elmina asked.
“Well, perhaps…” Lina said. She made a show of thinking about what could help when really her thoughts were this: Cons of helping: have to wound myself to get to the Naga Dimension to get the plant that’s extinct here, going to the Naga Dimension, seeing people I know. Pros of helping: Get in good with a fairly attractive prince, which means money and possibly getting rid of that annoying bi-annual “Die, Dragon Spooker!” villager mob at my door, having someone else take care of the expenses of the trip, seeing the almost sane person I know…
Elmina was getting a little impatient. “Well?”
“Yes, yes, there is a way to help him, but it won’t be easy or cheap…” Lina said. She then smiled big and winked. “But it’s nothing the beautiful genius sorceress Lina Inverse can’t handle!”
“Oh, good! I didn’t know there was another sorceress with the name ‘Lina’; when do we meet her?” Elmina asked, a better mood stirring inside her already. She took a look at the angry expression on Lina’s face and said, “Just kidding. I know you’re damn good at what you do. So, what’s the first thing we have to do?”
“Maybe telling me what happened to him would be a good start!” James said, standing in the doorway. He took notice of Cecil’s seemingly sleeping form and made his way to the prince’s side.
Nicholi stepped into the doorway after James vacated it, because stepping into it before would be silly. He cleared his throat and asked, “Lina? Would you mind stepping out here with me for a minute?” Lina shrugged and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
“How did this happen, Elmina? How?” James asked quietly.
“We got ambushed after we got outside and were taken to what they called the ‘Gate Generator’,” Elmina told James solemnly. “He was already starting to falter before we got there, and after getting through to the end and getting pulled into this… whatever it was, we practically wound up on your father’s doorstep and then he just collapsed.”
“Can we help him?” the quite distraught young man asked.
“Lina’s got an idea, but I dunno how long it’ll take to accomplish…” Elmina answered. “You’re not thinking of going with, are you? You weren’t exactly in top condition when you got back here either, from what Nicholi tells me.”
The young man slowly shook his head. “No. Leaving his side got me into this mess. I’ll keep an eye on him here while you go. Try not to take too long, all right?”
The warrior woman smiled a little. “All right. I know I can trust you to stay here. I know from watching you that you always try your best to protect those you love,” she said.
An indignant “I…!” escaped from James before he turned it into “I… I guess I do…”
“Well then, I guess I should get back to Lina… Don’t push yourself too hard, kiddo,” Elmina said before leaving the room.
“All right, bye…” The young man stared at the prince before him and muttered, “I don’t know who was the bigger idiot, Cecil: you or me…”
*
“He’s taking it better than I expected. Still, I think we’d better go before he takes a notion to come with us, Lina.”
*
Some time later, at the fortress Pandemonium, Hanpan looked out at the darkening sky. “I’m an idiot. Stupid. Foolish. I had a chance to be free, but what did I do? On second thought, a better question is why did I do it?”
The Wind Mouse-eared man felt someone from behind him put their arms around him. “Because you know that as long as I live, you are mine, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Zeikfried’s voice breathed in his ear. Or at least, that’s the best answer I can come up with…
Hanpan turned his head to glance at Zeik from the corner of his eye. “Go to hell, Zeik,” he snarled.
Zeik calmly replied, “If I do, I’m taking you with me.”
*
Not much later, in the dungeon…
Calamity, in “little girl” form, walked in quickly, an expression on her face that cried “FortheloveofMikeIdidNOTneedtoseethat…” She complained loudly, “Sheesh, you’d think they’d at least have the common courtesy to get a freakin’ room before doing that!”
From what passed as a bed in her cell, with closed eyes, Laine groaned, “Zephyr above, it wasn’t a bad dream…”
“Oh, hush, little girl,” Calamity chided, “You should be happy I want you alive.”
“Oh? Sorry if this interferes with your plans, but I don’t go that way,” Laine told her flatly.
The “little girl” Hiadan gripped the bars of Laine’s cell and sneered, “By the time I’m done with you, you’ll go any way I tell you to go, little girl.”
*
An undisclosed amount of time later, in a forest southeast of Rosetta…
“So, what’re we looking for? You didn’t give me all the details on the way here,” Elmina asked Lina.
“You’ll see when I find it. The Sunburst Flower we need is impossible to find here nowadays, so we’ll be going sometime where we can find it,” Lina explained.
Elmina, puzzled, stopped walking. “’Sometime’? What do you mean…?”
Lina cut the human off as soon as her eyes detected something familiar. “Here it is! The gate to the Naga Dimension!”
“The Naga Dimension?” Elmina asked. Lina wasn’t making much sense to her right then.
Lina nodded. “The Naga Dimension. Here you can see what Filgaia was like over 1,000 years ago! We’re going to visit an old friend of mine to see if he can help us. He’s smart enough, but not particularly social and he’s… well… you’ll see when you meet him,” she elaborated. She walked over to set of stairs connected to a strange platform framed by four columns and covered up the flat surface with ivy. “OK, Elmina, up the stairs!”
Elmina did as she was told and stood on the platform, followed by Lina. “OK, what’s next?” the warrior woman asked.
“Ah, well…” Lina began, really not looking forward to what she had to do to activate the gate.
“I should kick it, right?” Elmina asked. Before Lina could say anything, Elmina gave one of the pillars a good solid kick. What happened next surprised and relieved Lina…
*
Similar place, different dimension…
Elmina and Lina found themselves in another forest, this one brighter, greener, and generally livelier than the one that they came from. “Wow, pretty place here…” Elmina breathed.
“Hm, if I’dve known that’s all it would take I might’ve come to visit decades ago…” Lina muttered to herself. She turned to Elmina and announced brightly, “Welcome to the Naga Dimension! The Nagas sealed themselves here just after the Demon War 1,000 years ago and left me behind because their leader is a spiteful bitch! Shall we go now?”
“Oh, yeah, sure…”
*
At the end of the forest, some random Nagas were waiting for them. A short, dark-haired Naga girl stepped forward and began to speak. “Hey, hey, don’t you know humans aren’t allowed here? My sister says it’s injust…”
Lina, who was standing behind Elmina, came out to speak to the girl. “Relax, Amelia, she’s with me. We’re just gonna see Zelgadiss about something and-“
“Lina?!” the girl, Amelia, cried. “Lina! It’s been so long since I saw you last!” She turned to the other Nagas with her and said, “You’re no longer needed, shoo!” She waved her hand and they slowly left. “Lina, why did you stay behind? You hadn’t even taught me the Dragon Slave yet…”
“It wasn’t my choice; I got locked out!” Lina complained. “What kinda sicko tells you that you need to bleed on something to activate it when a good kick’ll do?!”
“What’s a Dragon Slave?” Elmina asked, feeling awfully out of the loop.
“Ix-nay on the Agon-dray Ave-slay, Mina-elay,” Lina growled to Elmina. “Well, we’d better get going before it gets dark, Amelia. It was nice seeing you again…” she said as cheerfully as she could fake, dragging her human companion with her.
“Wait!” Amelia called out, following them. “I’m going too!”
*
“Where
am I? It’s so cold…”
This is your heart. Your true heart. And here you will stay, my dear boy.
“Who are you? What do you want with me?!”
It is not important, and company.
“Why?”
Why not?
*
Lina sighed heavily. She, Elmina, and, despite some protests, Amelia were in the Forest Prison, a dark, seemingly infinite maze-like forest meant to keep all monsters in the Naga Dimension in so they could not harm the Naga population.
“So, Amelia, any particular reason you wanted to come along?” Elmina asked politely.
“Well, part of it was because I was going to come here anyway,” Amelia replied. She took out a shining silvery key and explained, “The Guardian of Life’s been trapped in here for ages and I was just able to get the key to the chest he’s stuck in from the elders recently.”
Lina froze for a moment. “Gourry’s trapped in here?! So THAT’S what happened to him!”
“Gourry?” Elmina asked. She was just full of questions that day.
“Gourry Gabriev, Guardian of Life. Don’t they teach you anything in human schools?” Lina said sharply.
“Sorry, Cecil’s the Guardian expert in the group, and he’s not here for obvious reasons,” Elmina replied. “So, you know where he is in here?” she asked Amelia.
“Well, no, but I’m sure we’ll find the right chest eventually!” the dark-haired Naga girl chirped. “Right, Lina?”
“Right,” Lina answered.
*
Near the exit, they stumbled across a large chest. “Is this it?” Elmina asked.
“I think so…” Amelia replied.
lemme out! a muted ghostly voice only a Guardian could have called from inside the box. it’s stuffy in here and i’m hungry!
“Yep, it’s definitely the right chest,” Lina said flatly. “Gimme the key…”
No sooner was the key turned in the lock than did the lid fly open and a little sparkly light fly out and take off to their right. “Energetic little bugger, this Gourry…” Elmina said.
“Nah, just probably happy to be out of the box. C’mon!” Lina ordered.
*
When they caught up with the light, it was hovering over a small pond. The light shaped itself into a human-like form and fell into the lake. Shortly thereafter what appeared to be a very wet young human male with long blond hair and in blue/blue-gray armor standing in waist-deep water. “Well, at least I’m no longer flying…” he said to no one in particular. He took notice of Lina and Amelia and waved at them. “Hi, Lina! Hi, Amelia! Thanks for getting me out of the box! Do you have any food?”
Elmina cocked her head to one side and muttered, “If I weren’t familiar with other Guardians, I’d say he’d be acting weird for one…”
*
Finally out of the Forest Prison, our odd assortment of human warrior, Naga sorceresses, and Guardian of Life made their way to a little house that had clearly required serious repairs frequently in the past 1,000 years. Quite a racket could be heard from inside. At last, a yell of “FLARE ARROW!” and a crash was heard and a strange, frazzled figure stepped out the front door. “1,000 years of being forced to live with that man… I swear, if I have to spend another minute with him alone, I’ll…” the figure grumbled to himself.
“Zelgadiss!” Amelia squealed before nearly tackling the figure. “I missed you so much!”
It was at this time Elmina gave the figure a good once-over. The figure, Zelgadiss, ranked high on the weird-looking-but-still-oddly-enough-appealing meter. From what she could see of his face, his skin was blue, and he had little stone flecks on his face in certain places. His wire-like hair, depending on the light, varied from blue to violet to silvery white. “He was an volunteer in the early stages of the Holmcross Project. That’s why he looks like that,” Lina whispered to her.
“And I’ve missed people who aren’t purposely trying to drive me insane, seduce me, or both at the same time. You don’t know how happy I am to see anyone who isn’t him,” Zelgadiss said.
Lina added two plus two and seemed rather appalled at the sum. “Drive you insane and try to seduce you? They didn’t stick you with…?!” she asked.
A grinning, purple-haired Cheshire Cat of a man appeared out of nowhere and latched onto Zel from behind. “Oh, I didn’t realize we had company, Zelly-kins,” he said brightly. He let go and floated to Lina. “Why, Lina, has it really been a thousand years since we last saw each other?”
“Yes, they did,” Zelgadiss said flatly. “Do you have any idea what 1,000 years with him will do to you? Do you?!”
“Make you have to fix your house a lot?” Gourry asked, looking at the poor shape the house was in.
Zel paused. “Well, yes, but other than that, do you know what it would do to you?”
The purple-haired man pouted. “Oh, you make it sound like it was all bad, Zelly-kins! You certainly weren’t complaining last night…”
Zelgadiss was taken aback to the point that he had to actually step back. In the beginnings of blushing, he protested, “What do you MEAN, I ‘wasn’t complaining last night’?! I’d never…!”
The purple-haired man rested his head on Elmina’s chest and pretended to be upset. “I never thought you’d be one of those ‘love ‘em and leave ‘em’ types, Zelgadiss…”
Elmina didn’t get a chance to push the man away. Lina smacked him one and reprimanded him, “Will you stop with the games for one minute, Xelloss?! Elmina and I have an urgent matter to discuss with Zelgadiss!” She paused for a minute, then asked Zel, “You, er, didn’t, did you?”
“Well, you did say it’s been 1,000 years; he’s only human…” Elmina mused.
“I’m no longer happy to see any of you now, I hope you know,” Zel said flatly.
“Happy or not, we need to find a Sunburst Flower for Elmina’s,” (Lina pointed to the human,) “friend Cecil, and we were hoping you could help us,” the red-haired Naga sorceress said bluntly.
“A Sunburst Flower?! What happened to your friend, Elmina?! Did the forces of injustice do it to him?!” Amelia asked.
“Well, sorta. It’s a long story, but we need him back at full strength s soon as possible,” Elmina answered. “He’s the only one who can talk to the Guardians under normal circumstances.”
“An Adlehyde? Hmm, surprised the family line survived, after seeing the way the first ones fought…” Zelgadiss thought out loud. “Anyway, in the first place, I’m not a florist. Second, even if we had a seed, we’d need Gourry’s help and the help of another Guardian to make it grow.”
Xelloss reached into his travel bag, pulled out a seed, and held it up proudly. “Two out of three, and I can find my mistress were I to leave this dimension,” he said happily.
“’His mistress’?” Elmina asked.
A sleepy Zed said from Elmina’s pocket, “Wind Mouse is to Fengalon as whatever manner of being out there is to its respective Guardian.”
“And his Guardian is…” Elmina began to get someone to answer that question.
“Zelas Metallium, Guardian of Illusion,” Zelgadiss finished. He sighed and added, “I suppose if you could enlist her help, I could get you the Sunburst Flower you need.”
“You’re very kind; thank you,” Elmina said. She looked up at the sky and saw it was getting dark. “Tomorrow we’ll go, then.”
“T-tomorrow?” Zel stammered. “Tomorrow” meant the group had to stay somewhere, and his little house looked very nice at that point in time. “Why wait? Go today…” he tried to say, but by that time, Lina, Amelia, and Gourry were already in his house. “I think I’ll sleep outside tonight. Outside and a fair distance from this house. The Forest Prison sounds nice right about now…” he mumbled.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but you didn’t answer Lina’s question…” Elmina said.
“Nor am I going to,” Zel said.
*
End Chapter 21
Chibi’s notes:
I wouldn’t answer the question either if I were him. ^^;
Rudy: But will you answer for the readers?
Uh… that is a secret.